Arriving at the EU summit, Cerar said Yaskawa Electric had decided on a new investment in Slovenia, which he said would bring new jobs to Slovenia, and which proved Slovenians "are capable of winning such investments in fierce competition".

Cerar met with the management of Yaskawa, which already operates a production unit in Slovenia, during his recent visit to Japan. Today, he said he was especially happy about the decision after the government had been working hard on the project.

Apart from Slovenia, Yaskawa has also been considering Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland as potential locations for its new European robot plant.

Yaskawa's Slovenian subsidiary would not wish to confirm that Slovenia had been chosen for the new robot plant, saying they would officially announce what the decision was at a news conference in November.

Unofficial information indicates the investment is valued at EUR 25m and would create 170 jobs. Its location in Slovenia is yet to be selected.

Yaskawa has two companies in the south-central town of Ribnica - Yaskawa Slovenija, which represents the company in the countries of former Yugoslavia, and engineering and production company Yaskawa Ristro.

Yaskawa Ristro generated EUR 29.8m in revenue in 2015, up 47% from the year before. Yaskawa Slovenija's revenue dropped from EUR 4.7m in 2014 to EUR 4m last year due to the economic turmoil in the region.